1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle and particularly to an electric vehicle arranged for ease of confirming the action of turn indicators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional turn indicators (winkers, there in after) on a vehicle have flasher lamps provided on both sides of the vehicle and are operated by a winker switch when turning to the left and the right. A pair of lights as a monitor for monitoring an action of the winkers are also provided on the operation panel in front of a driver. Thus, the monitor allows the driver to acknowledge the action of the winker lamps.
Recently, a variety of small and relatively low-speed electric vehicles have been provided for aged persons and physically handicapped persons. In relation to such small low-speed electric vehicles, some particular types of the monitor on the panel for acknowledging the action of the winkers are proposed. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication 2002-127817, an electric vehicle has a row of power indicating LED lamps provided as a battery power indicator. This power indicator also indicates the action of winker lamps in response to the left- and right-ward switching action of the winkers or winker switch through illuminating one after another in a sequence from a direction opposite to the switching direction. More specifically, when the vehicle turns to the right, its LED lamps are lit up in a sequence from left to right. When the vehicle turns to the left, the LED lamps are lit up in a sequence from right to left.
As a small and low-speed electric vehicle has commonly no roof and its operation panel is exposed to the sun light, the winker monitor may be viewed with much difficulty. For compensation, a buzzer may be employed for emitting a buzzer sound responding to the action of the winkers to support the visual display of monitoring. It is yet found difficult to perceive the buzzer sound when a noise source exists in the environment. Particularly, as aged or handicapped persons are disadvantaged in hearing and sight for recognizing moving objects, they may fail to acknowledge the action of the winkers which involves simply the sequential lit-up action of the LED lamps and the emission of a buzzer sound and even worse, may leave the winker switch not turned off.